Federal Officials Sue UC San Diego Medical Center

Federal Officials have now sued the UC San Diego Medical Center over claims that they have discriminated against potential candidates who were looking for employment. It is believed that the UCSD discriminated against those who were not citizens of the United States when it came to their hiring process, according to Sign On San Diego News.

This lawsuit took place after an employee of the UCSD, who is not named, made a complain to the federal officials in late 2010 about the university and how they threatened her, an owner of a permanent green card, about firing her if she refused to show new proof her status as a United States citizen.

Officials for UCSD claim that they have not seen the lawsuit made against them and because they did not see it, they were not able to comment on the lawsuit and what it entails. However, they have said that they are cooperating with the federal officials and plan to comply with the law by any means possible. They were notified in January that apparently, their hiring process was improper.

A spokesperson for UCSD, Debra Kain, has said, “We believe that we are now in full compliance with the federal regulations and we are actively working with the Department of Justice to resolve this.”

In the lawsuit, claims have been made that UCSD has violated the federal law made about people treating citizens of the United States and noncitizens of the United States differently from one another, especially when it came to deciding whether or not to hire certain people. The federal law has made it so that any employers have to use the exact same system of verification for all of their employees and potential employees.

The lawsuit also claims that UCSD has violated the federal law which enables employees and potential employees to decide which documents can be used for the hiring process. Employees are allowed to use a particular document that proves their identity along with their eligibility to work in the United States, with either a passport of a green card. They can also use a driver license or their Social Security Card as a means of providing identity and eligibility to work.

The lawsuit says that UCSD made all of their noncitizen employees show them a green card but did not require any of their employees that are US citizens to show any type of documentation during their employment.

The lawsuit also claims that from 2006 until 2011, UCSD had over 500 of their noncitizens employees show their green cards instead of allowing them to choose which document they would prefer to show to their employers. This was apparently a necessity from UCSD if the potential employees wanted to work within the university.